Three years ago today, I officially launched The Simple Dollar. It’s been a crazy ride. Each year, on the anniversary of the launch, I’ve highlighted my 25 favorite articles from the previous twelve months of entries. These aren’t necessarily the best articles, just the ones I enjoyed writing the…

Randy Johnson, president of Independence Mortgage Co. in Newport Beach, author of “How to Save Thousands of Dollars on Your Home Mortgage” and a mortgage broker since 1983, answers questions… Ed in Yorba Linda asks: Q. We have a 740 FICO credit score, more than ample reserves, no consumer…

Three recent emails from readers have made me focus lately on how much preparation for disasters we should be doing. First, from “Adam”: Do you think it’s reasonable to take some of the money I use to invest each month and buy gold bullion coins to keep in my…

FMF pointed me to this article from the Washington Post on the sad end of Bud Post, a lottery winner from Pennsylvania: William “Bud” Post III, 66, whose $16.2 million in lottery winnings brought him debt, despair and heartache, causing the kind of trouble often recounted in country-western songs,…

“One of the symptoms of approaching nervous breakdowns is the belief that one’s work is terribly important. If I were a medical man, I should prescribe a holiday to any patient who considered his work important.” – Bertrand Russell, The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell When I worked at my…

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported today its indexes of loan application volume dropped last week even as interest rates dipped slightly (though fees increased). Its refinance index decreased 16.2 percent from the previous week and the purchase index fell 5.2 percent from one week earlier. The four week moving…

I’m pleased to announce that we’re expecting our third child. The baby is due in late April. And, of course, when the child is born, you can expect pictures. This is the “news” I alluded to on Monday that was affecting my wife’s health – she’s had a big…

Melinda writes in: You constantly write about how having a notebook in your pocket all the time helps you in life and saves you money. I get that you can write down your ideas in it all the time, but I’m not a creative type. I don’t see how…

Whenever I mention a company on The Simple Dollar – Apple, Dell, Nintendo, Williams-Sonoma, etc. etc. – I usually receive an email or two from a reader telling me how absolutely horrible the company in question is. They tell a long story about how their customer service from that…

In Orange County, banks can make loans up to nearly $730,000 and sell them to government-controlled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac or get the loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration. But the bigger limits expire on Dec. 31. The Fannie/Freddie limit used to be $417,000 and…